PCOM vs. LMU-DCOM

[AkGrown84]

So....I currently hold an acceptance from PCOM, and am interviewing at LMU-DCOM on Friday. I feel like I interview very well, and they have a high post-interview acceptance rate, so *assuming* I end up having to choose, I am compiling a list of pros/cons for each school to decide. I will potentially have to make a fairly quick decision because deposits will be due quickly.

I have a family (4 kids, two of which will be attending school-5th and Kindergarden), and that obviously factors into my decision in terms of location, community, public schools, cost of living, etc.

If anyone has any advice or opinions one way or another, I'd love input! I want to be as informed as possible when/if we have to make a decision.

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[cliquesh]

Pcom Philly or Georgia?

 

[AkGrown84]

Philly

 

[TXKnight]

LMU is really rural, if had attended there, private school for my kids would have been my (strongly preferred) personal choice. So you have to factor that in financially wise

 

[AkGrown84]

LMU is really rural, if had attended there, private school for my kids would have been my (strongly preferred) personal choice. So you have to factor that in financially wise

This had been brought up before, and I had looked into the school district there, as well as Ewing, VA and Middlesboro, KY, and while they weren't "award winning" schools, they looked decent enough (rating of 5-7 out of 10). I've also heard, though, that the private schools are relatively "cheap"?! Somewhere in the ballpark of a few thousand per year? The same rating system ranked my child's current school as a 6, and it's one of the best public elementary schools in my city, so I figured they'd be somewhat comparable. Likewise, Philly seems to be hit-and-miss with school districts. One district's schools will all rank 1-3, while the neighboring districts are 9's across the board (and the property prices and taxes also follow this trend!), so I figure that with Philly, we'll be choosing our location based on decent school districts. Basically, that means I have a 30-ish+ minute commute to the school, while LMU-DCOM, I'd probably have a 10 minute MAX commute!

Is there something else I should be checking out?

 

[TXKnight]

This had been brought up before, and I had looked into the school district there, as well as Ewing, VA and Middlesboro, KY, and while they weren't "award winning" schools, they looked decent enough (rating of 5-7 out of 10). I've also heard, though, that the private schools are relatively "cheap"?! Somewhere in the ballpark of a few thousand per year? The same rating system ranked my child's current school as a 6, and it's one of the best public elementary schools in my city, so I figured they'd be somewhat comparable. Likewise, Philly seems to be hit-and-miss with school districts. One district's schools will all rank 1-3, while the neighboring districts are 9's across the board (and the property prices and taxes also follow this trend!), so I figure that with Philly, we'll be choosing our location based on decent school districts. Basically, that means I have a 30-ish+ minute commute to the school, while LMU-DCOM, I'd probably have a 10 minute MAX commute!

Is there something else I should be checking out?

I personally don't trust rating systems much, Like you said, your district is not rated well, however, the school is good. It can happen either direction. It's better to contact a few people that live in the area and give you their take on that issue. As far as I know private schools are very unexpensive there, your cost of living will be much lower and your commute probably immensely shorter. You have to assess what are your preferences and choose based on that. Someone can give you a thousand reasons to attend a school, but it takes only one for you to choose otherwise. Rural vs urban, newer vs established, "feel" of the class, etc

 

[AkGrown84]

Actually, our district is rated pretty solid. The really crappy schools in our district have 1's and 2's, and the couple cream of the crop elementary schools are 8's and 9's. There aren't many "cream of the crop", and I suppose what I meant with my son's current school, is that it's on the higher end of the bulk of the schools.....around #6 or 7 for our city (out of 51 elementary schools). I'm a former school teacher, so I'm pretty familiar with our district. Comparing the actual rankings are and how each school performs and is regarded in the community, it seems that the ranking system is pretty on-par, at least in our city. Therefore, I was assuming that the rankings for other places would be comparable.

I'll be there this week, so I definitely plan on asking students (with families) and others in the area about the schools. For the reasons you said above, I really like LMU-DCOM, but then there's that nagging voice that says we could really put down roots in the Philly area (all rotations can be done there, so we wouldn't have to move), and possibly residency. I suppose what I was really asking is what OTHER'S pro's and con's would be, to see if maybe they have something down that I hadn't thought of yet! Thanks for your input!!